


Faithful Mirrors Fearless

by voleuse



Series: Mezzanine [2]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:28:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26555869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voleuse/pseuds/voleuse
Summary: If they never think about the future, then maybe they won't need to fear it.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: Mezzanine [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1928404
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	Faithful Mirrors Fearless

**Author's Note:**

> This is a companion to [**Dark Side Neutralize**](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25614151). The last chapter of that story overlaps with the first chapter in this one.

Rey found the relative silence of Tatooine soothing after spending so long in the company of so many. And while this sky wasn't the same as on Jakku, the coarse breeze and muffled heat of the ground felt like a lullaby.

For a few days, she simply settled in--venturing into town to find supplies, familiarizing herself with the peculiarities of the moisture farm. Some of the equipment had corroded over time, but she found most replacement parts through bargaining with the Jawas. She and BB-8 debated how to patch over a broken juncture; there was one regulator they hadn't figured out yet.

In the hottest part of the day, BB-8 powered down and Rey retreated into the cool of the shadows. She swept out the surrounding hollows and chambers of the farm and chose a room to outfit as her own. Slowly it began to feel, if not like home, at least like hers. 

Unlike Jakku, however, she didn't have to wrestle for sleep. After bidding BB-8 goodnight, she curled onto her pallet and drifted off. She didn't have to scrounge for water or scavenge for food anymore. As well, she no longer felt alone.

BB-8 was the stalwart companion it had always been, but there was also the knowledge that, if BB-8 was with her, Finn and Poe wouldn't be absent for long. Sharing the _Falcon_ meant it wouldn't be long before she was reunited with Chewie.

And, of course, Ben. Ben, who was a part of her. If the old loneliness descended, she chased it off with memory. _I'd never leave you_. 

Their connection continued to manifest, as well, even though he was light-years away in Takodana. Sometimes she'd fall asleep at his side, sometimes they'd breakfast together. Once, they connected while he was in the middle of lifting a column of granite into place--he didn't drop it, but he came close.

One afternoon, she was filing down a gunked reducer when Ben appeared sitting beside her. She shot him a brief smile. "Just one second," she said as she worked. "There was a mineral buildup along some of the piping." Once she finished with the part, she used an old rag to dust off her hands. When she was done, Ben caught her hands in his and pulled her to sit closer.

She leaned forward to kiss him, one of her hands settling on his shoulder. "I didn't think I'd see you until this evening," she said when they parted.

Ben tugged a lock of her hair that had come loose. "It's some sort of festival day for the Pantorans," he explained. "It requires four hours of chanting, apparently. And this." He reached left, and then he had a narrow glass in his hand, filled almost to the brim with a deep blue liquid.

"What is it?"

He smiled and handed her the glass. Her lips tingled as she drank; it was slightly astringent, but not unpleasant. She leaned against him. "Tell me what the festival is like."

While he described the morning rituals, he split a sweet cake with her. Rey held one of his hands, lacing their fingers together. Ben fell quiet. At her look, he refocused. "Maz gave me a...thing. I'm not sure what, but it feels," he shook his head. "I don't know."

"Can I see it?" she asked.

Ben leaned forward, reached out, and returned with a small box, the shell of it traced in filigree. "It was in those rooms under the castle," he said. The box opened like an oyster, and within was a thick coil of an opaque stone. A snake, perhaps.

Rey peered closer at the artifact. "Did Maz tell you what it does?"

"Not exactly," he replied. "But she said Jedi have visions here. You did, right?"

"It was the first time I saw you." She looked at him sidelong. "You had the mask on. But most of it was the past, I think."

"I dreamed that often," he said. The figurine seemed to shimmer. "I haven't touched it yet."

"Why not?" Rey leaned her head against his shoulder. Ben didn't reply; she looked at him. "Ben."

He blinked. "Maybe I'm afraid of what I'll see."

She cupped her hand around his, pulling the figurine closer to them. "We can do it together," she offered.

He nodded. Together, they brushed their hands against the serpent. 

There was a flash, and Rey caught her breath. She looked around--they were in a field, watching a building in flames. The look on Ben's face told her where they were, and when.

He turned towards her, and then they were lost between towering servers, lit blue until the ceiling. A library. 

Rey reached out, but before she could touch one of the towers, the floor reeled, and they were standing on a rocky beach, watching a trio of children spar with shortened staffs. Even in their focus, the children were laughing. One of them hopped backwards to avoid a strike, the drift of the movement heralding the Force.

Lightning. A metallic shudder. They were standing in front of the _Falcon_ , and Leia was in Han's arms, sobbing.

They returned to the present, winded and shaken. Ben dropped the artifact on the ground and buried his face in his hands. 

Rey wrapped her arms around him as best she could and held him as he once again mourned.

***

After they landed on Hays Minor, Rey and Rose borrowed a speeder to get to the neighborhood where Rose used to live. Not all of the buildings had survived the First Order--while some were largely intact, others still lay crumbled into their foundations.

Rose's building, thankfully, was still standing, despite some broken windows. They locked their speeder at the front, then ascended a few stairwells to get to the Tico apartment. Halfway up, Rose slipped her hand into Rey's, her palm faintly damp. When they reached the landing, the door was ajar, with only darkness beyond.

"I know it's silly," Rose said, "but part of me hoped they would still be here, even after." She stopped talking, and Rey squeezed her hand. 

"Ready to go inside?" Rey asked. Rose nodded, and they pushed into the empty quarters.

Inside, there were a couple of tables. A cracked viewscreen. Shelves and chairs, though a handful were broken. Rose released Rey's hand and circled the room. Brushed her hand against the back of a chair. Straightened a couple of dusty trinkets. 

"Rose?" Rey stood still, barely past the threshold. 

"I'm fine," Rose replied. "It's just...nothing's really changed." She took a deep breath, then attempted a smile. "At least we have a place to stay."

The next couple of hours were quietly busy: sweeping out dust and debris, polishing a couple of windows, playing with wiring to get lights and the filtration system to passably work. They brought their supplies in and settled for the night.

In the middle of the night, Rey woke abruptly. She lay still and listened--it was Rose. Crying in the room she used to share with Paige.

Over the next few days, Rey helped Rose make inquiries around the city, looking to see if any of her extended family were still around. Two of her cousins, they discovered, had moved to another city. And, in a coincidence that felt more like the Force than not, they ran into one of Rose's grandmothers at the market. Rose spent most of the rest of the day bursting into happy tears. Rey, in the meantime, somewhat gorged herself on the feast Rose's grandmother had them help create. They made plans to travel together to that other city the next week.

One morning, Rey woke long before Rose did. In the empty kitchen, she got the cookstove working and boiled water for tea. Once she had set it to brew, she turned around and discovered Ben, his back to her, looking up at something.

After a quick glance over him, she cleared her throat. "What are you wearing?"

The embroidery on his robes seemed to shimmer as he turned. "Hey." The silken broadcloth of the robes was a deep maroon, the patterns a dark gold. "One of the, uh, palace attendants gave it to me."

"You're back in the palace?" she said. "Did the historian finally catch you?"

"Yeah." Ben brushed his hands down the front of the robes, seeming self-conscious. "I guess this belonged to my great-great-grandfather."

Rey drew closer to him, running her hands over the stiff embroidery draped over his shoulders. "I don't think I've ever seen you wear this much color," she noted.

Ben made a face at her, then sobered. "The queen isn't in residence, so they said I could look around at some of the less-public spaces in the palace." He looked up, his gaze sweeping from left to right. "You should see these portraits. I found one of my grandmother."

"Was she as ornate as this?" Rey asked, tugging at the collar of the robes. 

"About ten times more." Ben grasped one of her hands and followed her over to the table, settling across from her. He looked at her like he was thinking something over.

Rey took a sip of her tea. "What?"

"There are some portraits in the senate chambers," he said. "But a few were removed."

She started to bristle, then closed her eyes. Exhaled. "It's strange, isn't it?" she said. "That the two of them would have worked so closely together."

"The historian said their friendship was known," Ben replied. "He was one of her closest mentors."

"Ugh." Rey said, but she squeezed his hand. "Can you imagine, though? We could have both grown up there if things had been different."

"Very different," he said. 

Rey bit her lip for a moment. "I wonder," she said, "I wonder if there were any signs that he was what he was. What started him down that path."

Ben nodded. "I can ask--they've invited me to stay for--"

"Morning," Rose called out. "Why'd you let me sleep in?" She stopped abruptly, seeing Rey's palm up on the table and empty. "Oh no, did I break your thing with Ben?"

"It's all right," Rey said. She gestured for Rose to sit where Ben had just been. "I'm sure he'll pop up again later."

"Good," Rose said. She poured herself a cup of tea. "It looks like the weather's pretty clear today. The trip shouldn't take more than a couple of hours." Her fingertips tapped against the table.

"We still have a while before we fetch your grandmother," Rey said. "Tell me about your cousins."

Rose's nervous tapping stilled and she smiled. "I thought they were the worst when we were little," she said. "But we started to get along after this prank that Paige pulled."

***

There was nothing wrong with the _Falcon_ when she landed it in Kashyyk. When Lumpawaroo suggested they give the ship a full once-over, though, it sounded like an excellent idea to Rey.

For the first few hours or so, Chewie joined them as they disassembled, examined, polished, and re-assembled their way around. Eventually, Malla sought them out, and Chewie made Rey and his son promise not to change _anything at all_ before he left.

They worked in silence for a little while after that, aside from quick directives and requests. When they paused for the retro-cycling to complete, though, Rey took a closer look at Waroo.

"Is it your father you're bothered about?" she asked him. He glanced at her, asked her why she thought so. "Jedi, remember? We're good at this kind of thing."

Waroo leaned against the wall. He mused how nice it must be for her, working together with his father. Like they were partners, and Waroo shrugged, expression wry. 

"It is." Rey smiled. "He's rather grumpy most of the time, though."

Waroo acknowledged how right that sounded. Then he frowned, peered underneath a panel. He asked if what he was seeing was actually a nest.

"Ah," Rey said. "I guess we didn't get them all." She was about to explain further, but then a porg swept down and clung to Waroo's head. 

When Chewie returned to the _Falcon_ , he found Rey and Waroo chasing three porg hatchlings around the ship.

Later, Rey sat with Mallatobuck watching Chewie and Waroo sparred with ryyk blades. Chewie had the longer reach, but Waroo was quicker. Fighting to a draw seemed to be the norm.

Malla chuckled as Waroo knocked his father out of balance for a moment.

"They look so happy together," Rey said. She let out a long breath. "He's been very kind to stay with us. With me." 

Malla looked at her, waiting.

"But Han's gone," Rey said. "He doesn't owe us anything."

Malla shook her head. She explained to Rey that the former rebels, also, were his family. And in peace, they would have more time, anyway.

Chewie knocked one of the blades out of Waroo's hands, crowing triumph.

"You must miss him a lot," Rey said.

Malla agreed but pointed out their lives were long, and the cause was good. 

"The cause is good," Rey echoed.

Malla patted Rey on the shoulder. She promised Rey she would see for herself.

In the evenings, friends of Chewbacca would gather together, each night a small celebration of another day not at war. The light from the bonfire was brighter than Kashyyk's three moons. Rey sat, a bit in the shadows, watching Chewie and Malla laughing with their friends. She was the only human around, at least for the time. The rise and fall of the Wookies' talking reminded her of birdsong, but deep as the ocean. 

Somehow, Rey felt safer there on Kashyyk than any place previous. When Malla offered Rey a deep mug of grog, Rey drank deep, savoring the bitter and floral notes of it. At some point, two of Chewie's friends brought out instruments and the music swirled strange and merry around them.

A few songs had passed before Waroo caught up her hands. Rey meant to protest but instead, she laughed. She swayed and twirled and sang, and the stars were bright above them.

Later that night, sleepless but content, Rey wandered from her room onto the balcony, and up. Ben, she found, was standing beside her. He smiled at her, and she caught his hand in hers. "Where are you?" she asked.

"Still in the city," he replied. "I thought I'd figure out what the droids are up to."

"Have you found out?"

"Not yet," Ben said. "But I can confirm that BB-8 knows how to bypass old Empire security protocols. What about you?"

"Enjoying the air." Rey leaned against the railing. "I'm in this gigantic tree right now. I wish you could see it."

Ben slid an arm around her shoulders. "Dad told me about them." 

"Not Chewie?" Rey asked.

Ben shook his head. "He was never really good at explaining it," he replied. "Chewie just told me I'd never seen real trees before."

"You should see the ships they have here, too," Rey said, angling her hand into a swoop. "They're so open. Graceful." She caught Ben looking at her sideways. "What?"

"Nothing," he said. She turned to face him. "You're in a good mood." 

"I am." She slipped her hands up his arms, rested them on his shoulders. "Except you're not here."

He dropped his hands to her hips and pulled her closer. "That is a problem." He bent his head and kissed her, one of his hands sliding to the small of her back.

After a while, she leaned into him, her forehead to his shoulder. "You know, I don't think I'd ever really danced before tonight."

"Really?" Ben's voice echoed a bit when her ear was pressed against his chest. 

"Waroo tried to teach me." Rey hummed a few notes from the earlier song. Then she pulled back. "Have you ever danced?"

"I don't think so," he replied. He seemed to be blushing, but in the moonlight, Rey couldn't be sure.

"I miss you," she murmured. She shifted to place her lips against his throat. His hands tightened on her hips. "And apparently you miss me." Her eyes flickered shut as he pressed against her, as she heard his groan before he choked it off.

"More every day," he admitted.

"I was planning to return to Ahch-To in a few days," Rey said. "You have one more mission after Corellia, right?"

He nodded. "Kamino. Just clearing out a pirate gang, I think," he said. "It shouldn't take lo--" Ben jerked away from her and spun around.

Rey blinked. "What's wrong?"

"The droids." He looked back at her, then into the distance again. "The droids just stole my speeder. I should--"

"Probably. Good luck." Rey let their connection fade, but not before she started laughing.

***

The caretakers of the temple were less than enthusiastic to see Rey return, though she brought along with her fabric and other materials she thought might be of use. In any case, they didn't object when she settled into one of the huts.

Rey spent a day in the temple, listening to the whispers of those that came before. The dark still called to her, but it no longer overwhelmed. She sat on the cliffside and watched the sunset.

The ruins of the TIE fighter were much as she had left them, if less sooty. She spent hours sorting through what remained: parts to reclaim, parts to repurpose, parts to scrap. Some she would leave, she thought, in a dry place on the island--things that could be used for common repairs. The rest she stowed in her borrowed transport ship, making a mental note to stop at the next station with a recycling depot. 

She shadowed one of the caretakers for two days, and they begrudgingly let her assist with their more onerous tasks. She clarified fuel, scrubbed pots, darned threadbare garments, and reshored stone stairs. Then one morning, her grumpy companion waved her off, and Rey saw they had piled materials outside of the hut she had claimed: flat stones, sacks of mortar, and trowels. 

After she had spent a few days patching and repairing gaps in the inhabited buildings, the caretakers guided her to another side of the island, in view of the temple cliff. For a moment, Rey didn't understand why so many of them had gathered in the area. When she drew closer, however, she realized the faint indentations in the ground weren't random formations, but remnant foundations of buildings long crumbled. 

One of the caretakers smiled--she thought so anyway--and then they all began to build.

The next morning, Rey woke up and realized, first, that her muscles still ached from the day before, and second, Ben was next to her, his hand stroking down her arm. 

"Morning," he said. 

Rey edged forward enough to brush her lips against the side of his neck. "How long have you been here?"

"A couple of minutes," he said. "Probably when you started waking up."

"It's rather late here," she said, noting the hue of the light streaming into the room. "I must have overslept."

"You're that tired?"

"All I did was rebuild a couple of huts on the far side of the island." She stretched tentatively. "I can't imagine how you managed Maz's entire castle."

He smiled. "I'm not sure how I managed it myself." He shifted down, catching one of her ankles in his hands.

"Ben, if you even try to tickle me--"

"Relax," he said, pressing his thumbs firmly into the arch of her foot. 

Rey's incipient protest became a breathy moan as he massaged the sole of one foot, then the other. His fingers were firm as he kneaded her calves. She closed her eyes, letting herself drift into his touch. When his hands slid up to her thighs, though, Rey's eyes flickered open. 

"Ben," she said, recognizing the look on his face, "don't start something we might not finish." He made something like a growl before tipping over and lying back beside her. The heat radiated from his skin, echoing that of her own. Rey traced the line of his jaw with her fingers, then slipped behind his ear, along the back of his neck. Then she frowned. "Ben, what--"

"It's nothing." He pulled her hand away, but not before she realized the wound she had found extended along his shoulder and onto his back. "We got caught off guard earlier. Don't worry--"

But Rey had already sat up, tugged his shirt higher. The previous wound on his arm was healing nicely. When she shifted across him to peer at his back, though, she found a fresh, if shallow, burn just barely scabbing over, the edges of it still an angry red.

"First in, last out," he murmured in response to her gasp. He lay still as she examined him, but it was barely past a minute before he spoke again. "Rey," he said, his voice strained.

She came back to herself, realizing she had straddled his hip when she looked over him. Her breasts brushed against the bare skin of his arm; his hardness pressed against her inner thigh. For a moment, she forgot where they each were, bracing her arms around him and dipping her head to kiss him as her hips rolled.

Ben moved and she tumbled onto her back. He ground against her and she clutched at him, careful to avoid the burn. Then, remembering, she stilled, just as he did.

His eyes were clenched shut; Rey smoothed her thumb against his bottom lip. He took a deep breath, precursor to an especially fervent, " _Fuck_."

***

While they'd shared quarters--such as they were--on Ajan Kloss for a time, being together on the moisture farm on Tatooine was an entirely different experience. On her previous visit, Rey had had a chance to settle in, to acclimate herself. With Ben joining her, however, the way she thought of "home" was shifting slowly but perceptibly.

There was something remarkable, Rey found, to fall asleep next to Ben and know he would still be there in the morning. To watch him in the kitchen, with his mussed hair and bleary eyes, and see him completely fail at making breakfast once again. To step into the shower behind him and press her lips along his shoulder blades.

What she found more challenging, however, was being constantly, consistently observable. While she, unlike Ben, could play well with others, she hadn't realized how seldom she had explained what she wanted to do before--or even during--action. So many years of solitude meant she acted most often on instinct, on a bone-deep understanding of what she had to do.

(Not, of course, that Ben made any practice of surveilling her. Rey just found herself, more often than not, at a loss when he simply asked, _What are you up to?_ )

One afternoon, he found her in the workshop, the table before her laid out with fine welding tools, a handful of power crystals, and a number of smaller metal components. For once, she hadn't sensed his approach, as she'd been concentrating on the new emitter configuration.

"Is that a lightsaber?" he said, his voice low behind her.

"Oh." Rey didn't startle, her hands long trained to steady when working. "Not...exactly." When she had the part affixed, she set it down carefully.

Ben settled next to her on the workbench. "Not exactly," he echoed. "What is it?"

Rey turned the question over in her mind. "Did you ever have a vision," she asked, "of me, turned to the dark side?"

"Only glimpses," he said, raising his eyebrows. 

"On the Death Star," she continued, "on Endor, before you arrived. I fought this...version of myself." She shut her eyes for a moment. "It was awful, but she had this weapon." Rey used a finger to sketch the shape of it in the tray of cooling sand. A staff, with a complex hinge in the middle.

Ben leaned forward to take a closer look. "I've never seen something like this."

"Neither have I," she said. "But I could wield it like I do my staff if I can get the balance right."

"Good idea," he replied. "Your form is pretty rough."

"Very funny." Rey jabbed at his side with her elbow, which he largely dodged. With a quick gesture, though, he floated Rey's notebook from the shelf to the table, and she flipped the pages open to the designs she'd sketched. While she explained the shorthand she'd developed for the inner workings of the weapon, Ben jotted notes in the margins.

Before long, he was sorting through the power crystals while he told her how he constructed his old, discarded lightsaber. When she retrieved the model she'd patched together--two struts she'd been trying different connectors on--they ended up slowly reenacting the brief duel Rey had with her shadow self. They switched roles, back and forth, as they worked out the quirks of movement Rey hadn't completely parsed yet.

Then, in one go-around, Rey easily caught the quarterstaff he held between her own weapon, folded. "All right," she said. "I think I've got the right sense of it."

"Yeah," Ben said, and something in his voice made her look up with a different kind of curiosity. 

The kiss felt like a continuation: part duel, part investigation. Their prototype weapons clattered to the floor. She leaned into Ben, curling her hands into his hair as his hands roamed down from her shoulders. She nipped at his bottom lip with her teeth and he almost lifted her as his hands reached her ass.

It had been like this since they'd reunited--urgent, insistent, as if there was still the possibility they'd disappear from each other's embrace.

Even as Rey pulled away from Ben to demand, " _Now_ ," he was spinning her to face the table. She pushed her leggings down as she heard Ben shoving his own clothing out of the way; she braced her hands against the edge of the table as he grasped her hips, as he sank into her. 

Rey barely noticed the components rattling on the table, so focused was she on the fire racing under her skin. Ben's breath, a staccato counterpoint to every thrust. To one of his hands curving against her breast as he covered her with his body.

She'd sunk down to her elbows and he pushed more deeply into her. She pressed her forehead against the table, finally, reaching back to scrabble at his hips. A startled huff of breath behind her ear, then his fingers between her legs, right where she needed them.

Somehow, Ben managed to continue as Rey wailed through her orgasm before he began to pound into her unevenly, his curses sounding from behind gritted teeth. 

His weight pressed heavily on her for a moment while he caught his breath, while she felt their heartbeats find synchrony again. Then his palms settled on the table on either side of her. "Ready?" he murmured, and when she nodded assent, he slowly shifted out of her.

Rey took another few breaths before she straightened up, her knees still feeling wobbly. Ben had grabbed a couple of clean rags from the shelf and together they righted each other.

"Bed?" Rey asked him when they'd made themselves somewhat decent.

Ben raised an eyebrow. "Sleep?"

Rey shrugged. "Why don't I get you some water?" she offered. She headed off toward the kitchen but didn't resist smiling over her shoulder at him as she left.

***

Ben noticed her restlessness before she did. Though the work of the farm and the focus of building a new weapon kept her mind active, still she was driven to pacing on some afternoons.

On the day he found her balanced atop one of the buildings, rearranging antennae, the wary speculation in his eyes resolved into decision. "I heard there's an old destroyer, a few hours further out in the desert," Ben said when she had returned to the ground. 

Rey shot a glance at him, curious.

"Want to go see?" he asked. "We could take a speeder out there."

Rey raised her eyebrows. "You'd want to come with me?"

He smiled. "Do you think I can't keep up?"

"Ben." Rey rose on her toes, pressed her lips to his forehead, filled with affection. "I know you can't."

Nevertheless, he barely grumbled when they rose just after dawn. He looked askance at her as she showed him how to wrap a shawl over his head, how to breathe through the gauze in the way to overheating.

"This seems excessive," he noted as they climbed onto one of the old speeders Rey had been restoring. "It's a clear morning."

"You'll see." Rey tucked another flask of water into the carrier netting. 

There were, thankfully, not many flying insects in the wastes of Tatooine. (Something she'd not considered while jetting about Kashyyk with Waroo--she hoped to avoid telling Ben how it felt to clear gossamer wings from between her teeth.) There was, however, a light breeze that kept the temperature bearable. When combined with the gusts and repulsion of the speeder, it made for enough grit to abrade a bare face. At least, that's what Ben discovered before he hastily adjusted his shawl to once again mimic Rey's.

The destroyer came into sight almost an hour before they actually reached it. It wasn't as large as a command ship--and certainly nowhere near the bulk of the Death Star--but it still loomed over them like a mountain when they stood at its foot. Rey set about strapping on her gear while Ben stood there, staring up at the mass of it.

"Where do we even start?" he asked, only halfway paying attention as Rey handed him equipment of his own. 

"Engineering will have the most useful materials," she responded. "And some of the central junctions are high enough that the Jawas couldn't have got everything." She looked at Ben and laughed. "Those are upside-down," she pointed out.

Ben tugged at the goggles he'd hung around his neck. "I'm not even wearing them yet."

"It'll be dark inside," she pointed out. "And you might need to put them on quickly."

Grumbling, he righted them and turned his attention to catching up with her prep. 

Rey leaned against the speeder and watched him set to the task. The set of his jaw as he assessed the gear, checked the seal on his flask of water. Double-checked the hold on the carabiners she'd given him. She'd spent so much time fighting him; watching him work in other contexts was, she found, somewhat mesmerizing.

Though, she found fairly quickly, that he was incredibly bad at climbing. After the fourth time he'd lost a foothold and noisily slid down a few meters, Rey hoisted herself to sit on a shallow protrusion and looked down at him. "Is it because you're tall? Is it a height thing?" She bounced her heels against a slab of corroded metal.

"Funny." Ben stretched upward, catching his hands on the lip of a half-closed hatch door. With a grunt, he pulled himself up, and Rey was distracted by the flex of his shoulders. 

He'd almost reached her when he finally noticed her ogling. With a quick smirk and a push from the Force, he leapt lightly to stand next to her.

"Cheat," Rey observed. She rolled her head back, stretching her neck. 

Ben idly rubbed his hand down his forearm--there was a long run in his sleeve where it had gotten caught at one point. "You enjoy this, don't you?"

Rey shrugged, reached over to wrap a hand around his ankle in a quick caress. "It feels different when I know my next meal doesn't depend on it," she remarked. 

Ben might have glanced down at her, but she decided she was too busy gauging the distance from their ledge to one across from them. 

After a minute, she felt him lean back, so she looked up again. He stared upwards, where the light filtering in seemed almost tangible. "How far is it until we get to that hub?" he asked.

"The engineering junction?" Rey tilted her head. "We passed it almost an hour ago."

Silence. Then: "Rey."

She smiled at Ben and didn't break eye contact as she slipped off the ledge and floated back down into the depths. 

Later on, they settled in the shade of the speeder, passing a waterskin back and forth. Rey had laid out a spare tarp for them to sit on, to give them a place to rest while the suns set. She leaned against Ben's shoulder, enjoying the ache in her muscles, the warmth in her joints. 

Ben set the water down to catch the end of her shawl. The edge had frayed at some point; he tugged at the threads. 

Rey enclosed his hands in hers. "You want to go back out, don't you?"

"Want." Ben's shaky breath could have been mistaken for a laugh. "Not exactly. I just can't--"

"Be too happy?" Rey allowed herself a sharp spike of irritation before she tamped it down. 

He pressed a kiss against her temple. "Not exactly," he said again.

Rey curved closer to him. "All right," she said. "But, together."

"Are you sure?"

She nodded, and they watched the sky, watched the suns pale and dusk fall. 

Together.

**Author's Note:**

> Titles taken from Massive Attack's "[ **Teardrop**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7K72X4eo_s)."


End file.
